


Road Not Taken

by Dorkangel



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Awwh poor Master, Gen, Preferably from the Doctor, Regret, he needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 02:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1572191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorkangel/pseuds/Dorkangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during 'The End of Time'<br/>While he talks to the tied up Doctor (with Wilfred there), the Master considers his relationship with the other Time Lord, including how they met and their experiences with the Untempered Schism.<br/>Awwh. As you can probably tell, I think the Master is a genius of a villain and needs a hug.<br/>The title is from an Emily Dickinson poem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road Not Taken

"You could be so much more."

Theta's words echo in his ears... they are not the only echo in his ears.

ba ba ba DUM  
ba ba ba DUM

Unconsciously, his fingers trace the rhythm.

tap tap tap TAP  
tap tap tap TAP

He had been so scared, walking towards the schism, but it was an irrational fear. Like fearing that there would be a Dalek under his bed.  
Both his parents, all the adults he'd ever met, had looked into the schism and survived.  
'It doesn't hurt, love.'  
'Promise?'  
'Koschei, I wouldn't lie to you.'  
But it had hurt.

It had HURT.

Looking into the vortex made everything hurt, and everything happen at once. He was walking, he was looking, he was sitting on the red grass ten minutes ago, his head flying up, terrified, as he heard a scream rip through the air.  
It had hurt Theta too.

They lied. It had HURT.

A moment after the scream, a little boy, smaller than him, with a mop of blonde hair, had come tearing across the grass, stumbling and sobbing, eyes wide with terror.  
He scrambled to his feet, running over to the boy. "Are you ok?"  
The boy was too out of breath to answer, crying too hard.  
"Alright, you're alright. It's... it's over. Does... does it hurt?"  
The boy just cried harder, and Koschei didn't know what to do, so he sat down heavily on the ground next to him and hugged him, trying to give some comfort.  
"What's your name?"  
"T-Theta Sigma."  
"My name's Koschei."

And that was that. And then there was the vortex, and the drumming...  
The blue/purple swirling vortex wasn't RIGHT. It shouldn't be there, and that made it so WRONG to see... He supposes it could be thought of as beautiful, but it was a harsh, terrifying beauty.  
He didn't scream. At least, he thinks he didn't. He couldn't hear anything above the pounding in his ears.  
Not for days.

A few days later he had been brought to the TimeLord academy, pronounced 'sane'. Theta had been there. Sitting next to him, and smiling gratefully.  
"I never thanked you for helping me."  
"I-"  
ba ba ba DUM  
"-helped?"  
ba ba ba DUM  
"Uh huh. It... it was like I couldn't see what was real. But you were."  
"Oh."  
ba ba ba DUM.  
ba ba ba DUM  
tap tap tap TAP  
"Why are you tapping?"  
tap tap ta-  
"Oh. Sorry."  
"It's alright, I don't mind."  
Disarmed by Theta's odd friendliness (no one on Gallifrey was ever that friendly) he had looked up and replied honestly. "When I looked into the schism I heard drums. I can still hear them, in my head."

ba ba ba DUM  
ba ba ba DUM

Even running on his father's estate, his friend beside him, he could hear them. And then they weren't Theta Sigma and Koschei anymore, they were The Doctor and The Master, and The Doctor ran away with his granddaughter, determined to keep her safe, and LEFT HIM BEHIND, and he could still hear them.

He had never forgiven him that.  
His best friend - his ONLY friend - had left him alone with the drumming, the constant, relentless drumming in his head.  
Driving him on through the years, the sound used to summon so many races to war, driving him to conquer and destroy and hunt him, The Doctor, for leaving him behind, for thwarting his plans over and over and over...

ba ba ba DUM  
ba ba ba DUM

For perhaps the second time in his life, he speaks honestly.

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise in my head."


End file.
